Google South Africa has launched CS First, an eager program planned for furnishing South African students with the basics of software engineering.
Present at the dispatch were members from government, members from the education community, and community leaders, the program means to prepare in excess of 30 000 students crosswise over nine provinces over the course of about a year.
Created by educators, CS First aims to introduce students to computer science fundamentals in a collaborative environment. Students watch instructional videos while simultaneously building projects in Scratch (scratch.mit.edu), a blocks-based programming language.
“If South Africa is to compete globally, its learners need to have a strong digital skills base. With CS First, we’re setting up that foundation, equipping them for success later on,” said Fortune Mgwili-Sibanda, Policy and Government Affairs, Google South Africa.
The program targets learners in grades 4 to 8, although it may also be useful for learners up to grade 10. Globally, more than 2-million learners have experienced CS First.
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To ensure that the program addresses the needs of the disconnected and under-served communities and is inclusive, 70 percent of Google’s CS First training will be in public schools and 10 percent in special needs schools.
“We are also aiming to encourage girls into the technological world, to reach a 60 percent female inclusion rate into the project,” said Mgwili-Sibanda.
The official launch of CS First comes off the back of a successful pilot project which saw 2 400 learners from selected South African public schools and 2 community centers, in Gauteng, Eastern Cape and Western Cape provinces, get hands-on with CS First.
The launch also ties in with Google’s work through its Grow with Google initiative across Africa. Over the last two years, it has trained thousands of South Africans on digital skills with the help of its training partners through it’s Digital Skills for Africa program.
Its community training sessions have targeted under-served areas to expand digital skills to a diverse range of people.
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“Google is always inspired to see what people can do when they have access to technology. CS First exposes students to coding as a means of developing critical thinking and problem-solving skills which have been identified as essential in the 4th Industrial Revolution,” concluded Mgwili-Sibanda.
